RISE anti-racism effort led by Stephen Ross opens Detroit office

The sports-based anti-racism initiative created by Detroit-born billionaire and sports figure Stephen Ross has opened a field office in Detroit to service the Midwest, the nonprofit organization said Tuesday.

The space inside the Chrysler House building at 719 Griswold St. will serve as the New York City-based Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality’s regional office handling programming for Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

RISE is led by CEO Jocelyn Benson, the former dean of Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.

“We already have numerous partnerships in place with pro sports teams, universities, high schools and other organizations in Michigan,” she said in a statement. “With the Pistons move to the city, Detroit is one of the only cities in the country with all four professional sports teams playing in the downtown, making it the ideal location for our Midwest office. We look forward to expanding in Michigan and throughout the Midwest with our Detroit office. This will be the first of several planned regional offices across the nation.”

A staff of five will work from the Detroit office, including Shawn Starkey, former WSU law school director of marketing and communications. He became RISE's vice president of communications and marketing this month.

RISE was created in 2015 as “an unprecedented alliance of professional sports leagues, organizations, athletes, educators, media networks and sports professionals using sports to bring people together to promote understanding, respect and equality,” the organization said in a statement Tuesday. “Through panel discussions with professional athletes, law enforcement and elected officials; public awareness campaigns; and educational programming at the high school and university levels, RISE aims to improve race relations.”

Stephen Ross

Ross, 76, is a New York City real estate industrialist who bought the Miami Dolphins for $1.1 billion in 2009 and may be best known locally for donating more than $300 million to his alma mater, the University of Michigan, where the business school and an athletic campus are named for him. He also has a law degree from Wayne State.

Ross formed RISE as a response to the 2013 situation in which one of his Miami Dolphins players quit the team over racially tinged harassment, a situation that drew national scrutiny.

He spoke about RISE and his Detroit roots in an exclusive interview with Crain's at his New York office in 2015.

The core of RISE is a nationwide public awareness campaign of public service messages and social media outreach, and a curriculum focused on racial equality and issues, and civility, for youth, high school and college students.

RISE’s youth pilot program was with the nonprofit Think Detroit PAL, which gets city kids ages 7-14 involved in various sports — a relationship initially fostered by Benson.

The anti-discrimination curriculum will be intended to promote understanding, respect and equality among student-athletes and coaches, RISE said.

In addition to programs with Detroit’s four pro sports team and UM and MSU, RISE has a leadership training program that has worked with Cass Technical High School, Cesar Chavez Academy High School and Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, all in Detroit; Plymouth High School; Saline High School; Southfield High School for the Arts and Technology; and West Bloomfield High School.

Participating in RISE's anti-discrimination coalition are the four major U.S. pro sports leagues along with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Major League Soccer, the Association of Volleyball Professionals, the Professional Golfers’ Association of America, USA Track and Field and the United States Tennis Association.

The commissioners of all the sports leagues, and top executives from the networks, sit on the RISE board.

Some of the pro sports starts featured in PSAs include the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James, the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry and former Michigan State basketball star Draymond Green. The RISE advisory board includes UM Athletic Director Warde Manuel.

RISE said it is active in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, North Carolina and Washington, D.C.